This invention relates to electronic program guide data for television systems in general and, in particular, to the discrimination of multiple television signal sources having like designators.
An Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is an interactive, on-screen analog to TV listings found in local newspapers or other print media. An EPG provides information about each program within the time frames covered by the EPG which typically ranges from the next hour up to seven days. The information contained in an EPG includes programming characteristics such as channel number, program title, start time, end time, elapsed time, time remaining, rating (if available), topic, theme, and a brief description of the program""s content. EPGs are usually arranged in a two-dimensional table or grid format with time on one axis and channel numbers on the other axis. Unlike non-interactive guides that reside on a dedicated channel and merely scroll through the current programming on the other channels for the next 2 to 3 hours, EPGs allow viewers to select any channel at any time up to seven days forward. Further EPG features include the ability to highlight individual cells of the grid containing program information. Once highlighted the viewer can perform functions pertaining to that selected program. For instance, the viewer could instantly switch to that program if it is currently being aired. Viewers could also program one touch video cassette recording (VCR) or the like if the television is properly configured and connected to a recording device.
Such EPGs are known in the art and described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,353,121; 5,479,268; and 5,479,266 issued to Young et al. and assigned to StarSight Telecast, Inc. These patents are all directed to television scheduling systems or EPGs in which a television display can be brought up by a viewer showing the current channel offerings in a table format. The cells of the table which form the columns and rows are irregular in length (row dimension) because not every program spans the same amount of time while the columns are regular in height. Typically, programs are broken down into xc2xd hour increments and a single program can last in excess of two hours. This is illustrated in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,121 in which xe2x80x9cPerfect Strangersxe2x80x9d spans from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM while in the row below xe2x80x9cSesame Streetxe2x80x9d spans the length of the grid covering in excess of 1xc2xd hours.
Digital television viewers now have the ability to view more channels than ever before in more ways than ever before. A problem has arisen, however, due to the increasing number of sources transmitting television signals including Digital Satellite Systems (DSS), high definition television (HDTV), and digital cable. DSS allows for numerical channel designators to range from 100 to 999 while HDTV viewers can choose channels from 0 to 999, and cable channels range from 1 to 125. Obviously, these ranges overlap causing confusion for viewers. For instance, how are viewers to know which source they are receiving if the channel number is 105. Channel 105 can be from any one of the three sources identified above.
The current state of the art requires viewers to manually enter the desired television signal source prior to scrolling through the available channels. What is needed is a system that can discriminate among television signal sources without requiring the viewer to pre-select a source.
The present invention allows viewers to select a channel and, if there is no conflict of television signal sources for the selected channel, then the system will automatically tune to the only available source for the selected channel. However, if the system detects a conflict, i.e. multiple sources for the selected channel, a message will appear on-screen showing the viewer the list of available sources and allowing the user to select from the list. The system is designed to allow viewers to disable the feature or set a default source if desired. By allowing the user to select a channel prior to the source the system releases the viewer from having to select a source in all cases since the system will only prompt the viewer for a source if there is a conflict.